


the lies we tell ourselves

by neverlasting_legend (neverlasting)



Series: the Echo Cave series [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 15:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1904592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverlasting/pseuds/neverlasting_legend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a lie you tell yourself each night before you go to sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the lies we tell ourselves

There’s a lie you tell yourself each night before you go to sleep.

You hate him.

You miss him.

You loved him once.

The first one is the truth – one that you spit caustic and pained because you do!

You  _hate_  Peter Pan, the cruel boy king who made you love him only to send you away; the wicked ruler of the eternal island who stole you from your bed again to hang you like a trinket in his collection of lost toys.  He stole time from you like it was his to own and when you took it back, all that was left was a girl without a home. 

Being saved didn’t make you found, it made you lost.

The second one is a confession – one that you breathe sad and reluctant because it hurts you to say as much as it relieves you to admit.

It burns on your tongue like acid and slides down your throat like medicine, sticky and cloyingly sweet.  It feels like missed chances and broken promises in the pit of your stomach and soon you relate the phrase with betrayal though you won’t say on what account.  Betrayal is betrayal and whether you feel the guilt on behalf of your saviors or captors makes no difference. 

You feel like a traitor anyway.

The lie is the last one – one that you say soft and quiet with shame seeping from each syllable because isn’t it bad enough for you to confess that you once loved a monster?

You say that you loved him once because it allows you a fraction of respect.  It lets you look in the mirror and not hate yourself for growing used to the cage in the treetops and the larger prison of the island.  The lie lets you smile and laugh with your brothers because they forgive you for falling for a demon with an angelic boy’s face because you were just a  _girl_ and you didn’t  _know_  just who you were selling your soul to.

You say you loved him once because it implies that you know better now – that you’ve learned from your mistakes.

You are happier with this lie than you could ever be with the truth.

You will never say you love him still.


End file.
